1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to offshore systems and methods in liquefied gas production, storage and offloading, and more particularly to limiting structural damage to an affected offshore platform and preventing damage spread from the affected offshore platform to another platform during accidents or emergency conditions, e.g. collision, fire or explosion.
2. Description of Related Art
There has been considerable publicity over accidents at offshore oil or gas platforms. Collision of a vessel with an offshore platform potentially results in damage to structural integrity of the platform and economic losses due to high capital investments in construction of the offshore platform. Fires and explosion blowouts threaten personnel safety and environment well-being. Due to the volume of flammable materials on offshore platforms, fires on offshore platforms are known to burn for long periods of time resulting in severe and possibly irreparable damage to the offshore platforms. Even if fires may be eventually put out, the potential pollution due to oil spills may result in an environmental disaster.
In view of the above and other problems, limiting structural damage to an affected offshore platform and preventing damage spread from the affected offshore platform to another platform are highly desirable.